55 hours of songs
Ukrainian telethon will be broadcast in 155 countries
Ukraine will make an attempt to hold the world’s longest ever live national song telethon in early April 2012. The National Television Company of Ukraine (NTCU) and Kyiv National University of Culture launched the Song Unites Us megaproject.
The music telethon will be broadcast live on the First National TV Channel from March 31 to April 2. The organizers have already received confirmation of their application submission from the Guinness Book of Records.
A coauthor of the project, the general director of the NTCU Yehor Benkendorf told the press that the telethon was expected to last 55 hours without interruption and advertising. It will bring a record number of participants, too, with 2,012 artists, the camera crew, and audience members in the studio. The preliminary arrangements provide for the Ukrainian telethon broadcasting in over 155 countries. Another co-organizer of the event Mykhailo Poplavsky said it aimed to promote Ukraine and Ukrainian songs in the world and support the Ukrainian language, as well as preserve national identity, create the depository of best Ukrainian songs, and support young artists.
The selection of participants has been entrusted to organizing committee and supervisory board. These bodies include Vasyl Zinkevych, Dmytro Hnatiuk, Nina Matviienko, Ruslana Lyzhychko, and Yurii Rybchynsky. Every Ukrainian may take part in the telethon. The only requirement is to present a sound record of an exclusively Ukrainian song. There were 400 participants selected by February 15, including, among others, Nina Matviienko. We have been unpleasantly surprised, though, by the absence of live singing in the telethon, as all performers will lip-sync.
Head of the NTCU’s international cooperation department Viktoria Romanova said that “the national song telethon will be the world’s first. Canada hosted similar event in 2001, called ‘Musicians for Freedom,’ but it was broadcast on the Internet.”
The megaproject will consist of three parts: the history of Ukrainian culture, Ukraine’s record achievements, and the future of the world. Each participant will be allowed to perform several songs, and the show will involve four to five pairs of presenters.
The general director of Era television company Ihor Lotashevsky has announced that there will be live connections with the Ukrainian diaspora, too, as they were quick to respond to the offer to participate in the telethon. “The diaspora participants will pay for live connections and technical support themselves, as this is a non-profit project. By the way, they intend to publish a book of song lyrics and release a DVD with records of the project after it finishes,” Lotashevsky noted.
Let us recall that Channel 5 held a 52-hour telethon “Ukrainian Independence” in the format of talk show to mark the 20th anniversary of Independence of Ukraine in 2011, recognized as world’s longest by the Guinness Book of Records.
